DETROIT – With deadlines fast approaching, Michigan state Republicans and President Donald Trump’s campaign are hoping to change the outcome of the election in a few ways.
First is a recount. According to Michigan state law, a recount has to be triggered when a candidate wins by less than 2,000 votes, which doesn’t apply to this year.
It can also be petitioned by a campaign as long as they have a reasonable chance to win. But that’s unlikely given former vice president and President-elect Joe Biden’s lead in votes. Not to mention the fact that it’s expensive. The Trump campaign would have to pay for the recount by precinct.
Next is the effort to halt the count based on claims that a Republican poll watcher was removed from a counting room and that a poll worker was instructed to change the date on ballots that may have arrived after election day.
A court of claims judge denied both accusations as hearsay or moot. While the campaign has appealed, that same judge said Monday the campaign was missing key documents and has 21 days to turn them in or the appeal is dismissed.
State Republicans are also calling for supporters to make claims about irregularities to a hotline set up by the party, hoping to bring those to court, too.
Finally there’s claim the state legislature could refuse to certify the election and instead replace electoral college electors with ones favorable to the president whose campaign reportedly had been trying to get friendly state leaders to do just that.
But a statement from a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey noted state law doesn’t allow it in writing.
“I think it’s important to dispel the notion legislative leaders in Michigan can choose different electors,” the statement read.
While many of these options could muddy the waters election, experts think they’ll do little, if anything, to impact the election in Michigan.
It’s also worth noting it’s illegal in the state of Michigan for an elector to change their vote when voting for president and vice-president.
On Monday night, Attorney General William Barr authorized federal prosecutors across the U.S. to pursue “substantial allegations” of voting irregularities before the 2020 presidential election is certified, despite little evidence of fraud.
In response to a lawsuit alleging voter fraud in Detroit, David Fink, who is the city’s lead attorney on the case, issued this statement:
"This is yet another belated lawsuit, raising baseless allegations to try and undermine confidence in a well-run election.
Like two previous lawsuits, this case is not based upon actual evidence of any election fraud or misconduct, it is based upon various conspiracy theories, which have already been debunked. We are confident this case, like the others filed last week, will be dismissed.
There were more than 200 Republican challengers in the room at the TCF Center, but only five have come forward to support these claims, which actually tells us how well the process was run.
In their rush to file this lawsuit, it does not even appear that the supposed witnesses read their affidavits; one witness couldn’t even get his own name right.
Everything done here was done for good reason with one goal in mind - to be sure that every vote is counted," the statement read.